This photograph captures the authentic essence of daily life on Jalan Suryakencana, Bogor, an area renowned as a historic Chinatown center and a culinary magnet in the city known as the ‘Rain City’. The main subject in the photo is a mobile ornamental fish vendor attending to a customer.
This particular scene is an inseparable part of Bogor’s streetscape, a tradition that has persisted for decades, dating back to the 1970s and 1980s.
The vendor sells his wares, which commonly include goldfish or betta fish (Ikan Cupang), utilizing a simple wooden cart equipped with small wheels.
The cart is specially designed with tiered racks to display the fish, each neatly packaged in a small plastic bag filled with water. This unique, stacked presentation method is a defining characteristic of mobile ornamental fish vendors across Indonesia.
They operate in strategic and bustling areas, such as along this sidewalk, positioned directly in front of modern shops whose appearance offers a visual contrast to the traditional trade.
Their primary target market is young children who are accompanying their parents while shopping or engaging in culinary tourism around the Pasar Bogor (Bogor Market) and its surrounding areas. For the children, acquiring an ornamental fish in a transparent plastic bag is a small, exciting treat and a simple souvenir from their outing.
This profession represents the enduring spirit of small-scale entrepreneurship within the city.
The fish vendor, with his compact cart, is a vital element contributing to the lively, dense, and colorful atmosphere of the Suryakencana area.
These small traders are an integral part of the intangible cultural heritage of Bogor’s streets, maintaining the tradition of small trading and daily interaction amid the city’s increasingly modern development.
